With U17 World Cup Spot Already Set, Mexico Top U.S.

Having already secured a trip to India for October’s U17 World Cup the U.S. won’t be too upset by dropping Sunday’s CONCACAF U17 title match to Mexico on penalty kicks after the rivals played to a 1-1 tie in regulation time.

The Young Yanks may look back with some regret on conceding Mexico’s equalizer two minutes into added time but the object for John Hackworth’s group was to qualify for the age group World Cup and the Americans accomplished just that, and they did it in style.

The U17’s had an overall very successful tournament.(ISI Photos/Casey Brooke Lawson)

Prior to Sunday’s result the U.S. had enjoyed a perfect CONCAF Tournament, defeating Jamaica, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Cuba without having dropped a point, receiving an inspired performance from Josh Sargent throughout while players like Andrew Carleton, Ayo Akinola, Tim Weah, and Gold Glove winning keeper Justin Garces to name but a few stepped up when needed.

Defeating Mexico for the first time at this level was a highlight for the Young Yanks, who came so close to repeating the achievement on Sunday.

Despite falling just short of matching the U.S. U20’s recent CONCACAF title Hackworth’s group will head to the age group World Cup in October full of confidence that this can be the group to take aim at the famous Class of ‘99 that featured Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu, and Kyle Beckerman.

That group finished fourth and was comprised of players from the first U.S. Soccer Residency class at Bradenton, Florida while the current group is the final one with U.S. Soccer having decided to end the Residency program.

The U17 MNT will now prepare for the 2017 FIFA U17 World Cup, set for Oct. 6-28 in India. John Hackworth’s side will learn its group opponents when the draw takes place July 7 in Mumbai.

The United States, Mexico, Honduras, and Costa Rica are the four CONCACAF nations to qualify.